This essay traces the fortunes of Peirce in contemporary semiotics. Although many accounts of the development of semiotics refer to both Peirce and Saussure as founding fathers of modern sign study, the tangled history of semiotics in the contemporary academy is far less straightforward. Furthermore, general Peirce scholarship has taken routes that do not always converge with those of semiotics. The essay therefore evaluates the shortcomings and successes of Peircean endeavour in semiotics. In appraising the place of Peirce in contemporary semiotics, close attention is paid to the 69-page review of Short's book, Peirce's Theory of Signs, by John Deely (2006) as an example of what is at stake in respect of the issues covered in the essay
